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I don't think we're yet evolved to the point where we're clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change. The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.

James Lovelock

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James Lovelock
Age: 105
Beekeeper
Biochemist
Biologist
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James Ephraim Lovelock
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More quotes by James Lovelock

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I wouldn't be against them (large wind turbines) if they actually worked.
James Lovelock
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We need a more authoritative world...What's the alternative to democracy? There isn't one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.
James Lovelock
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A billion could live off the earth 6 billion living as we do is far too many, and you run out of planet in no time.
James Lovelock
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NASA will send up a big sun shade that will be in orbit between the earth and sun and deflect 2 or 3 percent of the sunshine back into space. It would be cheaper than the international space station.
James Lovelock
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By the end of this century, climate change will reduce the human population to a few breeding pairs surviving near the Arctic.
James Lovelock
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Nowadays if you're dependent on a grant - and 99% of them are - you can't make mistakes as you won't get another one if you do.
James Lovelock
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Civilization in its present form hasn't got long.
James Lovelock
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The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time... it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising - carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that.
James Lovelock
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This programme to stop nuclear by 2020 is just crazy. If there were a nuclear war, and humanity were wiped out, the Earth would breathe a sigh of relief.
James Lovelock
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I have heard that the Saudi Arabians are paying Greenpeace to campaign against Nuclear Power. It wouldn't surprise me at all.
James Lovelock
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The climate is doing its usual tricks. There's nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now.
James Lovelock
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The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books - mine included - because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened.
James Lovelock
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An inefficient virus kills its host. A clever virus stays with it.
James Lovelock
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I've got personal views on the '60s. You can't have freedom without paying the price for it.
James Lovelock
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The inertia of humans is so huge that you can't really do anything meaningful.
James Lovelock
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We'd never have got a chance to go outside and look at the earth if it hadn't been for space exploration and NASA.
James Lovelock
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I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.
James Lovelock
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Science always uses metaphor.
James Lovelock
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One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don't know it.
James Lovelock
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Geological change usually takes thousands of years to happen but we are seeing the climate changing not just in our lifetimes but also year by year.
James Lovelock